The Scanner: SF public defender has attorney take...

1of3SF public defender Jeff Adachi (left) talks with deputy public defenders Anita Nabha (middle) and Chesa Boudin (right) who represented robbery suspect Kenneth Humphrey as they talk to press about his release at Hall of Justice on Thursday, May 3, 2018, in San Francisco, Calif. This case may determine the standard by which inmates can be held before trial.Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

2of3Yolanda Reed Banks’ son, Sahleem Tindle, was shot by a BART officer, who now may get a promotion.Photo: Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle

3of3The San Francisco Fire Department and the city Department of Public Works are mopping up a large diesel spill caused by a leaking big rig on Friday at 28th an Noe Streets in Noe Valley.Photo: Bill Hutchinson /

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi pulled a stunt last week not often seen from a defense attorney: He gave one of his own lawyers a polygraph test.

Adachi is now using the results to argue that Deputy Public Defender Elizabeth Camacho wasn’t lying when she made the racially charged claim last month that a judge compared one of her cases to a telenovela.

The conflict is just one facet of a convoluted 2015 murder case that Adachi took on himself this year before launching a blitz of pretrial motions to kill the case.

Adachi said he got the idea for the polygraph while watching Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Ford told the committee that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in high school, and she took a polygraph test before testifying to bolster her credibility

“I saw it on TV,” Adachi said of his latest gambit. “I watched the Kavanaugh hearings, and I said, ‘That’s a good idea.’”

The San Francisco district attorney’s office was not impressed with the move.

“Mr. Adachi’s stunts are as flamboyant as Evel Knievel’s and somehow, they suffer from even less substance,” said Max Szabo, an office spokesman. “Perhaps Mr. Adachi should subject himself to an independent polygraph test covering his many statements on this case and many others.”

The polygraph ploy is just the latest twist in a case that has seen an escalating battle of one-upmanship between Adachi and prosecutors.

It started back in 2016, when a judge tossed out murder charges during a preliminary hearing against tenant-rights attorney Carlos Argueta, who was accused of fatally stabbing a 61-year-old man on Sixth Street the year before.

Undaunted, prosecutors took the case to a grand jury and secured a murder indictment against Argueta, 34. Adachi cried foul, saying the prosecutor committed misconduct because he didn’t present exculpatory evidence to the grand jury, as required by law.

Last month, Adachi filed a motion asking Judge Ethan Schulman toss the indictment, even though the same judge had already rejected a similar motion by the public defender’s office. Rather than wait for Schulman to make a ruling on his latest effort, Adachi pushed to have the judge taken off the case.

So Adachi hired a professional to hook Camacho up to the polygraph machine and ask her whether she lied about Schulman’s statement.

“She passed with flying colors,” Adachi said.

The test is admissible because it is part of a civil procedure, Adachi asserted. Polygraph tests are not admissible in criminal cases.

Argueta’s case goes to trial Tuesday as Adachi and the district attorney’s office wait to see what happens with the other motions. Court officials declined to comment.

BART cop’s advancement on hold, for now: BART Police Officer Joseph Mateu, who fatally shot 28-year-old Sahleem Tindle outside West Oakland Station in January, remains eligible for a new assignment as a field training officer, a position responsible for training and supervising rookies.

An investigation into the shooting is still ongoing, though, and if the Alameda County district attorney’s office doesn’t clear Mateu of wrongdoing by Oct. 25, his name will be taken out of the running, officials said.

The case is the latest to raise questions about whether officers should be denied advancement during pending investigations.

If granted, the title change — and a 5 percent pay raise — would come after protests by family members and supporters of Tindle, who was shot dead when police were called to break up a fight outside the station.

Mateu’s body camera footage showed two men tussling in front of a barbershop when he arrived. BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas said Tindle had shot and wounded the other man, who was “trying to fight for his life.” A gun was recovered at the scene, but it’s unclear if Tindle had control of the weapon when he was shot.

Oakland attorney John Burris, who represents Tindle’s family, said Mateu might get cleared for a new job but added, “he hasn’t been cleared by me.” Last month, Burris filed a federal lawsuit against Mateu, BART and Chief Rojas.

Tindle’s mother, Yolanda Banks-Reed, said she was disappointed to learn Mateu was being considered for a promotion of sorts. “It’s just sad,” she said. “The whole situation all the way around is inhumane.”

District attorney’s office spokeswoman Teresa Drenick said she did not know when the investigation would be completed. Laywers representing Mateu did not return calls seeking comment.

Mateu wouldn’t be the first police officer to be honored after a controversial shooting. In 2013, San Francisco Officer Mary Godfrey was awarded a silver medal of valor for shooting and killing 32-year-old Pralith Pralourng after he appeared to have a psychotic break and slashed a co-worker at the Tcho chocolate factory with a box cutter.

Godfrey hadn’t yet been cleared when she was nominated for the award. After the process came under scrutiny, the city changed its policy so that nominations for medals of valor could not be considered until after a shooting investigation was completed.

That car is on fire: San Francisco police are searching for an unknown number of arsonists who have set six cars ablaze in the past two weeks. No injuries have been reported in the crimes, and there are few clues to identify suspects.

The trouble began Sept. 23 and 24, when firefighters were called to extinguish two car blazes in the Castro and the Mission, respectively. Fire Capt. Attica Bowden said a blaze on 19th and Capp streets was intentional.

Then, on Sept. 26, a man heard a loud boom on the 2300 block of Pine Street in Lower Pacific Heights and looked outside to see his car on fire. Police said the victim identified a potential suspect but did not provide further details.

Four days later, cops responded to an auto inferno just after midnight on the 500 block of Raymond Avenue near McLaren Park. And to cap off a fiery couple of weeks, flames engulfed a vehicle just after 9 a.m. Tuesday on the 2000 block of 17th Street in Potrero Hill.

Few details have been released about each of the incidents, but for now they all appear to be isolated, said Officer Giselle Linnane, a police spokeswoman.

Roundup: The biggest public safety news from the past week

• An Alameda County Sheriff’s sergeant was charged with four felonies after a video showed him admitting to secretly recording juvenile suspects and their attorney.

• Longtime San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón announced he will not seek re-election in 2019.

• A Berkeley hot dog cook who was fired for taking part in last year’s deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., was charged with inciting a riot.

• A new library program has given inmates at three San Francisco jails a positive way to escape.

•Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that could give hundreds of “lifers” in prison a chance to regain their freedom.